In Ontario, municipal governments are responsible for providing most services within the municipal boundary including, but not limited to, water and sewage, electric utilities, road maintenance, snow removal, childcare, long term care, garbage collection and recycling. By law in Ontario, municipalities must publish and implement corporate Conservation and Demand Management (CDM) plans that summarize municipal […]
Applying a Climate Lens to COVID Response and Recovery Plans
At Clean Air Partnership we have created a climate lens for use in municipal decision making. The climate lens asks, ‘how will a municipal decision affect climate (through creation of greenhouse gas emissions) and, ‘how could it be affected by climate (ex. extreme weather, flooding risk)?’ In building our understanding of how to respond to […]
Climate Action in Small Communities
There are 444 municipalities in Ontario. Approximately 90% of these communities are populations of less than 25,000. Tacking climate change poses specific challenges for communities of this size. Smaller municipalities have fewer staff generally, never mind staff dedicated to climate and energy. They have less discretionary funds available due to a smaller residential and commercial […]
Incubating cycling in suburban communities
Cycling offers communities a wide range of potential benefits, including improved health, friendlier streets, reduced traffic congestion, reductions in GHG emissions, and improvements in air quality. However, the nature of suburban communities creates an environment which is not particularly conducive to cycling. These neighbourhoods were often built during the 1950’s post-war housing boom and were […]
Energy Reporting: an Enabling Action that Leads to Energy and Greenhouse Gas Reductions
It is frequently said that what gets measured gets managed, but we also often hear the saying that what is truly important cannot be measured. So which is true? Well, both – life is full of contradictions. Deal with it! Many jurisdictions, both nationally and sub-nationally, have been advancing efforts to increase energy reporting requirements. […]
Compounding the zero-emission impact
On January 9th, the City of Toronto’s Infrastructure and Environment Committee will decide whether or not to adopt an Electric Vehicle (EV) Strategy. This strategy identifies 10 practical actions to eliminate the 30% of Toronto’s GHG emissions created by personal vehicles, transitioning from internal combustion engines toward zero-emission vehicles. Currently, less than 1% of vehicles […]
Why are we not talking about air pollution in Ontario?
When Clean Air Partnership was established 20 years ago, air pollution was a public health crisis that rightly attracted considerable media and political attention. Smog days were the norm, with 53 days recorded in 2005 alone. In 2005, the Ontario Medical Association released ‘The Illness Costs of Air Pollution’ which showed that 5,800 Ontarians suffered […]